The AAAWU Interim President Anthony Bain yesterday announced in a press conference that President Nelerene Harding, Robert Pickstock, Esther Clarke and Ivy Smith have all been suspended from full membership in the union.
Mr. Bain alleges that the group unconstitutionally signed off on 1,039 checks valued at some $1,366,135.01.
And according to Mr. Bain, he has a duty to uphold the union’s constitution.
"We want to show our members that in excess of $1 million has been pulled out of the union’s account without the proper officer’s, in this case, the treasurer’s signature," he said.
"This is a very serious matter. It is on that basis that we feel it was justified that the above named persons be suspended from the union for what we consider to be reckless conduct, breach of their fiduciary duties, breach of the Industrial Relations Act and the constitution of the union. The executive council will be meeting shortly to see what extent persons who are involved may be prosecuted."
Mr. Bain added that the accused were all given notices of the union’s findings and summoned to attend two hearings of the case on June 24 and 29, both of which neither of them attended.
But he said in keeping with the union’s constitution that reads, "In default of appearance or defense the trial body shall proceed with the hearing regardless of the accused."
And that, Mr. Bain said, is exactly what they did.
But Ms. Harding was quick to refute these claims, calling them "bogus" and "made-up untruths."
In fact, the embattled president says it is near impossible for her to have committed such an act.
"The Airport, Airline and Allied Workers Union has never, ever seen $1 million," she said. "The union has never even had an account that had in excess of $200,000 on it. And the audited finances of our union are presented. In fact, I would like to state that we are one of those entities that only collect union dues and our union dues are only $16,000 a month. So any logical person out there would know that could never amount to $1 million."
Ms. Harding presented the union’s financial reports for the years 2005 to 2007, and according to those documents, the net income for each year was between $21,000 and $36,000.
Ms. Harding said she believes this is only a personal vendetta against her and yet another election ploy by Mr. Bain and his crew to block her attempt to regain the union’s leadership.
But she advised Mr. Bain to play the election game fairly.
A meeting between both parties is scheduled for Friday.
